Can Carrara 2 do any of these? If not could anyone suggest an application that can? I'd like to take this P5 character, and make a model to apply transparent materials, in Vue4 and Bryce5! As you can see V4 Boolean Differance wo'nt cut it.

I believe carrara 3 does what you want.. (not sure what you are trying to do ) not sure what carrara 2 does.. i skipped over it

I have a little bit more info about what is happening here, since I read Angel's first post on this over in the 3D apps forum. It seems a boolean difference has been used to make the figure have a wall thickness for rendering a transparent effect. The problem is that the object used in the subtraction was a slightly scaled down version of the figure, which intersected the larger figure in several places, and has removed parts of the larger mesh. The way to do this is use an app that can do parallel offset, shelling, or thickening. It's all the same function, but some apps refer to it differently. Chris

I don't quite understand. Why not just use a transparency shader?

In the Vertex Modeller you can 'Add Thickness' whichs is exactly what you want, in my opinion. And sailer_ed, I presume that angeletc wants to picture a hollow figure made of glass, instead of a solid figure.

Hoofetc(...hehe!) - Your mesage to sailor_ed is exactly correct. I plan to import this model into Vue 4 for use with the Basic Glass material, which is like a transparent shader that just does'nt work right when the figures are solid...

Hoofdcommissaris - BTW, how sure are you that the Vertex Modeler's 'Add Thickness' function can do this "Hollowing" out of my figure mesh?

If you import a Poser figure in Carrara, it is not solid at all. If you remove a part of it (I did experiment a lot with it) that is immediately clear, the 'skin' of the figure is ultra-thin. So the hollowing is not what needs to be done. The 'add thickness' is what needs to be done to create the structure that mimics a hollow glass object. In the example you see the orignal Poser figure, imported as 2ds on the left, with a part removed on the right (no brain surgery needed as you see) and in the front a glass head with added thickness. I had to add a very small negative amount because of the small size that Carrara sees Poser. The downfall is ofcourse that you get to see all the inner parts too, like the inside of the mouth and the eye balls of DAZ figures, so might have to remove some parts in the vertex modeller (V<)before the illusion is what you want it to be. You might even get to know the VM rather good before you are satisfied with the results. But that is actually part of the fun. Good luck! P.S. You can call me 'Hoof', everyone else does and I switched to that nickname on a lot of other places..

Hoof - I still need to export jus the skin though. here is my expiriment with thickness and Bryce5! The image on the left had thickness applyed.

Going on with my export needsneed to resolve how to get the my .obj import into the VM. Here is how I get to the VM. I create a new scene, click this button and drag in the scene!

Then this window appears and I select File>Import!

But I need to then close this window to see my imported figure!

The route should be: - import the figure (you import it in the main window first) - double-click the figure - now it looks like something is wrong - there isn't - go to edit > Convert to Other Modeller - choose the Vertex Modeller - it appears in the Vertex Modeller (sometimes rather small, but zooming resolves this) I see in your preview above that your figure has four or five parts.You can convert it to one big mesh with a Boolean operation. Or export as dxf and reimport (which might resolve the tiny size in the Vertex Modeller too, now I think about it). The figure I used above was the Casual Woman (Poser 2 or 3 if I remember correctly), in which the clothes were integrated in the mesh. I did not want tot start throwing naked girls around, when we are clearly talking angels.

Nature is a beautiful thing, in any context, thanks for your tutelage! In our case it is also the simplest form of expression and help, it must have taken an extra effort to dress her... The only thing I have against .DXG VS. .OBJ is that I sometimes need to smooth a .DXF. WHich Boolean operation were you speaking of?

Also, on .DXF, could it remember where my textures are?

Attached Link: Transposer on the site of Carrara

(She was dressed to begin with) A boolean union of the wings and the back of the figure (they need to intersect for that). You can do that in the Assemble room ( edit -> 3D Boolean) Nope, the UV information is lost when exporting as a .dxf But I thought that a glass shader would be procedural, then it is not a problem. My favourite transfer format is 3ds by the way, also when exporting from Poser. You get to choose to export as groups for each bodypart and all, it takes more time to re-texture them in Carrara, but you have more possibillities to change stuff (or parts) without affecting the UV coordinates in the rest of the figure. I wish I had more time to experiment myselve, but time might be on the side of them Rolling Stones, it is not on mine. I am running to get by it... Good luck! O, and now of course there is TransPoser. See the link. That makes working with Carrara and Poser a breeze, as far as I have heard these days.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1712184

Thanks, sorry to hear of your time restraints. Ok so exporting as .DXF or Select All>Edit>3D Boolean>Boolean Union should help? Would either or solve the mapping problem I'm having at the above link?

There are different mapping methods available in the texture room. I had this dude around for an illustration I am making, so I tried to show you some differences. The standard mapping takes UV coordinates in consideration, so there are smaller checkerboard blocks on the haircut, cillindrical or cubic mapping 'project' texture on the object, but then you still get deformations. Actually checkers is not the best example, because those squares need to get distributed on a non-square object you will get deformations in every method. Gottago! Good luck with it!

Thank you very much! I wich other applications would map the same. it is good to know what Carrara can do! Cylindrical mapping looks like my best bet!

Hoof - you've been such a great help, please let me start here by saying thanks one more time. I've a few more questions I'm hoping you can help me with! My first problem is moving things around. Sometimes, when I use my cursor, all I accomplish moving is a little tiny dot. How are things moved and rotated numerically? Another thing I'd like to know about are what I though were in the Render Room. I remember seeing options to set what an object would be rendered over i.e. a sky or bkg. color, but I've lost track of where I saw this, any idea? I think I may be onto solving our Vertex Editor/Boolean Union issue. When first imported my DXF and tried moving into the Vertex Editor, only my figure and halo made it, no wings etc. And I could'nt see where to select my entire object from the properties pallette in the Assembly Room. Then I imported again and saw a "3DFACE Seperation>Group all3DFACE in a single object" option in the DXF Import Dialog. This puts a list, in the properties pallette, which seems to select my whole figure! Though...I'd still like to know how to additively and subtractively select objects? More over I would like to know how to do this from somewhere like the properties pallette, rather than trying to do do with my cursor? And finally I have a few images of what I've roughly accomplish, without things positioned very well. First is render of my dxf as imported...

This is whats going on my my Assemble Room. As you can see I'm only dragging my water shader onto where my DXF is listed, but am left wondering if I'm dragging onto the proper listing. Only the listing I've specifically circled becomes highlighted when I drag over it. Is this ok?

I'm thinking the listing two levels up, where it says "M2 Prayer Wedg," and not just "0-ft" would have been better, because this is wha I'm then getting from the Render Room, without having changed the lighting or anything else.

As I've said, Hoof, you've been a wonderful help, and thanks again! I'm hoping these simple questions are within you patience and expertise! Any reply will be appreciated!

Hope this helps.

Th sky is in the same tab as the numerical stuff, when you select 'Scene' You can choose a bi-gradient, a map or a color. A sky (the skies or not too impressive in my opinion, I never use them) you define under 'Atmosphere'. I was moving this weekend (I am scratched all over and my whole body aches), sorry for the delay.

Hoof - Did you get all of your moving finished, these were wonderfully fast, I hope you've had time to rest! These screenshots give me a great idea of what to expect. I've saved this post to floppy and will be bringing it home in a few minutes. My first only real concern though is how you get to them? For the first I plan to select my object and then look to the propeties pallette for the transorm option, but I swaer I would have tried this already. I also see something about splines wich I will be looking for. For the second screenshot I'm hoping to find these otions after just selecting my "Scene" from the properties pallette. Thanks again for for all your help, please take your time getting back here(Just do'nt forget.), any reply will be appreciated!

Hi all, Hoof has been a huge and I would just like to start off again today by saying thanks, and that I hope his moving endeavors are starting to gain some organization for him! I forgot to bring my latest pics with me, but I was able to move things around much more acurately, thanks to Hoofs posts! Although I'm not getting much of a differance between my DXF and OBJ import renders. I then had another try at 3D Boolean, but once I had my figure and a smaller copy of it selected, the Edit>3DBoolean option was not lit? Another thing I began to wonder if there is a way for is positioning things at the same coordinates quickly, can this be done fast somehow? And finally, I'm now wondering how the default lights work. Do they project light similar to a spotlight, or dfo the imminate light in all directions? Is there a way to get them to imminate? = )

Hi all, Hoof has been a huge and I would just like to start off again today by saying thanks, and that I hope his moving endeavors are starting to gain some organization for him! I forgot to bring my latest pics with me, but I was able to move things around much more acurately, thanks to Hoofs posts! Although I'm not getting much of a differance between my DXF and OBJ import renders. I then had another try at 3D Boolean, but once I had my figure and a smaller copy of it selected, the Edit>3DBoolean option was not lit? Another thing I began to wonder if there is a way for is positioning things at the same coordinates quickly, can this be done fast somehow? And finally, I'm now wondering how the default lights work. Do they project light similar to a spotlight, or dfo the imminate light in all directions? Is there a way to get them to imminate? = )

Here is what I've managed to put together with your help Hoof!

It renders like this, but now I've more questions about how to get where I'd like to be next:

I noticed, in many renderers(especially Poser) that too many lights tends to wash a figure out. I'm concerned this may be the case again here. So, what I want to do is make keyframes with certain lights deleted. I think the sequncer is pretty staight forward, but I'm wondering if there is a trick to making notes for each keyframe. This way I can keep the camera angle a little closer, and still follow wich lights I'm using.

Also, regarding adjusting lights, can we adjust several lights at one, maybe by linking them somehow?

About the Infinite Plane, how can I add a material, or change it's color? I did'nt notice it in the Properties pallette, how is it getting it's value now?

When I exported this .OBJ from, Poser5, I made sure all of each figures parts were included, but I ca'nt seem to locate any figure's individual parts. Take the loin for example, the trim on the top and bottom are two different parts, while the cloth represents another dozen parts that need adjusting.

The next thing I started to wonder was how to change the document window size numerically. I could find where to adjust the render's dimaensions, in the render room, but not the scene's properties?

Finally, onece I've some of my other issues in hand, I'd most likely be compositing my renders in photoshop, and will be needing to know how to make an Object Mask for my figure? Most renderers can do this. All it is, really, is a black and white(No grays), render of a figure, to use in a photoshop Alpha Channel for making selections.

**I typed an answer yesterday, but appearently it did not reach the site. Pitty!**

It renders like this, but now I've more questions about how to get where I'd like to be next:

I noticed, in many renderers(especially Poser) that too many lights tends to wash a figure out. I'm concerned this may be the case again here. So, what I want to do is make keyframes with certain lights deleted. I think the sequncer is pretty staight forward, but I'm wondering if there is a trick to making notes for each keyframe. This way I can keep the camera angle a little closer, and still follow wich lights I'm using.

How about making area renders? When you select the small camera you can get a quick look at the render result. With the small icons on the right side of the work area you can choose multiple views, in the small view you can select lights and toggle them on and off, in the larger area you can do a render by just dragging the camera around the figure, or part of the figure.

Also, regarding adjusting lights, can we adjust several lights at one, maybe by linking them somehow?

You can create a masterlight, by promoting one to that under 'edit'

BUTIt looks like you are mimicking some kind of global light situation (with light from all sides) while 'Global Illumination' is actually part of the renderer of C3. You can use the sky, or other stuff in the 'Scene' thing called 'Background' to light your model, you can even use hdri files, this image is done with one light, the rest of the global light comes from the hdr picture.

About the Infinite Plane, how can I add a material, or change it's color? I did'nt notice it in the Properties pallette, how is it getting it's value now?

Like you can change the shader of any object you can change it by selecting it and go to the shader room, or in the properties tab, choose one of the presets or click the edit button (which will take you to the shader room)

When I exported this .OBJ from, Poser5, I made sure all of each figures parts were included, but I ca'nt seem to locate any figure's individual parts. Take the loin for example, the trim on the top and bottom are two different parts, while the cloth represents another dozen parts that need adjusting.

When exporting you get to choose if you want to export seperate groups for each body part, do that. By 'adjusting', do you mean adjusting the mesh, or the shading? For shading you will find, in the shading room, different shaders for each part that has had an UV map area for itself (I did not put a shader in the 'lips' part in this case). For me the .3ds file format is best because you get a lot of shading information in the file.

The next thing I started to wonder was how to change the document window size numerically. I could find where to adjust the render's dimaensions, in the render room, but not the scene's properties?

Finally, once I've some of my other issues in hand, I'd most likely be compositing my renders in photoshop, and will be needing to know how to make an Object Mask for my figure? Most renderers can do this. All it is, really, is a black and white(No grays), render of a figure, to use in a photoshop Alpha Channel for making selections.

In the render room, click the tab 'Output', specify the Photoshop file format, and you can choose additional channels to render, like alpha and premultiplied alpha (which antialiases with the background color) but also depth channel and some others which can help in compositing and playing with the render afterwards.

Hope this helps again!

This render of yours is lit excellently! What is meant when Carrara artists say "Indirect Light", I've seen this specific term used in caps a few times now? Where did you find a Carrra HDRI file, can you trade/share with me? I would definately be willing post whatever it is of my stuff you may like, to the Free Stuff area! I'm also a bit miffed by what extra channels you were refering to, and how they associate with "Extraction?" and Depth of Field "in post?" By adding a shader to the Head and Body, did you lose data from any 2D texture that may have been mapped to the figure, and if so which shader did you use, this is really a potentially awsome scene, the ambience of the skin is so bright it almost looks like he is glowing. I would very much like a copy of this scene, to use a few times over! I just wish the feet did'nt wash out at all. I'm hoping this is an intentional effect. How about making area renders? When you select the small camera you can get a quick look at the render result. With the small icons on the right side of the work area you can choose multiple views, in the small view you can select lights and toggle them on and off, in the larger area you can do a render by just dragging the camera around the figure, or part of the figure. I'll be hoping to keep the recycle some of the light sets, for different renders, I think? Of coarse I may find a favorite! You can create a masterlight, by promoting one to that under 'edit' BUTIt looks like you are mimicking some kind of global light situation (with light from all sides) while 'Global Illumination' is actually part of the renderer of C3. You can use the sky, or other stuff in the 'Scene' thing called 'Background' to light your model, you can even use hdri files, this image is done with one light, the rest of the global light comes from the hdr picture. That is correct, but I'm still using C2. I'd like to upgrade this month, but will be needing to see how things go. About the Infinite Plane, how can I add a material, or change it's color? I did'nt notice it in the Properties pallette, how is it getting it's value now? Like you can change the shader of any object you can change it by selecting it and go to the shader room, or in the properties tab, choose one of the presets or click the edit button (which will take you to the shader room) I see, but how do I select it, there is no "Infinite Plane," or "Ground" listing in my Properties Palette? I should have brought a pics of my palette and sequencer. When I exported this .OBJ from, Poser5, I made sure all of each figures parts were included, but I ca'nt seem to locate any figure's individual parts. Take the loin for example, the trim on the top and bottom are two different parts, while the cloth represents another dozen parts that need adjusting. When exporting you get to choose if you want to export seperate groups for each body part, do that. By 'adjusting', do you mean adjusting the mesh, or the shading? For shading you will find, in the shading room, different shaders for each part that has had an UV map area for itself (I did not put a shader in the 'lips' part in this case). For me the .3ds file format is best because you get a lot of shading information in the file. Aha, thanks! I was refering to shading. I was leaning toward .obj, but just becasue I've been assuming we would'nt want to mix shaders and mapped textures, allthough from the idea I'm getting some of the shaders you've chosen mimic realistic textures much better than I'd imagined! In the render room, click the tab 'Output', specify the Photoshop file format, and you can choose additional channels to render, like alpha and premultiplied alpha (which antialiases with the background color) but also depth channel and some others which can help in compositing and playing with the render afterwards. Thanks for all your Help Hoof! Your IM was right in saying there are many places I need to get my head around, and the manual is alot of help, but it just is'nt like conversing with a person, even if it is through a forum post like this. I live for these forums, I learn so fast with them I do'nt concentrate on any other method that much at all(Including college!) 3 Cheers for Hoofdcommissaris! Hip, hip, Who-Ray(Trace... = ) !) Hip, hip, Who-Ray! Hip, hip, Who-Ray!

I got the infinite plane to mirror! I did'nt realize we needed to add an infinite plane first! I'm still puzzled over the Promote to Master commend, in referance to linking my lights brightness, because when I do this my properties palette loses it's listing for Brightness! Here we go before the promotion..

And here we are after..

I can also see where you mentioned using a photoshop output to achieve a mask image, but I still ca'nt get the toggle above it to ucheck, and my render is still coming out in full!

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=106&Form.ShowMessage=1735009

BTW - I started a new thread, with a few more questions, at the attached link. = )

This render of yours is lit excellently! What is meant when Carrara artists say "Indirect Light", I've seen this specific term used in caps a few times now? Indirect Light is similar to 'radiosity' in a lot of other packages, the bouncing of light between different objects and surfaces. In Carrara 2 it is integrated in the advanced render, in C3 you can choose Sky Light and Indirect Light independently, that's why people started throwing those caps around. HDRI is new for version 3, you can choose an HDRI file as lighting source in the 'background' tab of the scene. Those are not Carrara specific. There are some free ones around the web, a fair group on the C3 CD and you can buy them on CD's and DVD's from Dosch Design and Sachform (to mention just two companies) I'm also a bit miffed by what extra channels you were refering to, and how they associate with "Extraction?" and Depth of Field "in post?" When you render an alpha channel along with just the color of your render, you get additional information. The alpha channels (found in the aptly named 'channels' tab) are not just black and white, but all greys from 0 to 256. The 'disappearing' feet are a demonstration of that. When you check the 'Distance' box, you get an alpha channel that you can use in Photoshop. When you option/command click it, and turn it into a selection, you can use that with several passes of low Blur amounts, to create depth of field. In post. Or to create color fall-off, by filling a layer with color and experiment with layer blend modes. Like I did to get some kind of 'heavenly' atmosphere. The same goes for the alpha mask. It is in the channels, and you need to make a selection from it and extract the figure from the layer (command 'J'). By adding a shader to the Head and Body, did you lose data from any 2D texture that may have been mapped to the figure, and if so which shader did you use, this is really a potentially awsome scene, the ambience of the skin is so bright it almost looks like he is glowing. I would very much like a copy of this scene, to use a few times over! I just wish the feet did'nt wash out at all. I'm hoping this is an intentional effect. The shader actually uses the 2D data from a HiRes Michael Texture Map I altered some years ago, for the pixel color. The other factors that make up the appearance of a shader (shininess, bump, reflection) are also part of the total shader tree. The bumpmap is also a jpg map, shiness is just a (low) value. I cannot share this scene, becaus Michael is a DAZ figure you need to have license to use, as is the original texture map. I will check your other thread too.

Wow that was a very good answer, sir! I ca'nt wait to bring this home and read it again, then I can write an appropriate response. Are you at all interseted in sharing the scene without DAZ's geometries. I realize I do'nt have your specific texture, but the lighting, in the Carrara file, does seem very well put together! = )

Wow that was a very good answer, sir! I ca'nt wait to bring this home and read it again, then I can write an appropriate response. Are you at all interseted in sharing the scene without DAZ's geometries. I realize I do'nt have your specific texture, but the lighting, in the Carrara file, does seem very well put together! = )

The lighting actually is just a hdri file (17Mb in size), that surrounds the scene and lits it, an hdri file being a kind of light-emitting real life image (there are no lights in the scene). But you can only use it in Carrara 3. I thought you were using that. There is a nice demo on the Eovia site. A light dome around your scene can be an alternative (a large sphere, sometimes with an open back to stay out of frame, surrounding the scene with a huge amount in the glow channel, by multiplying white with a scale of, like 1500%), you can find information about that around here. I never tried it, so i do not know a lot about it. If you have time and a bit of a fast machine you can experiment with different light and render settings (and 'ambient light' settings as well) to see what works in C2. Keep up the experiment!